Posts by D C

“Come, let us reason together,” says the Lord. Although this is an ancient passage, from theeighth-century BCE Hebrew prophet Isaiah, the simple phrase seems particularly apropos this week inAmerica’s political life as we watch Donald Trump being arraigned again. But before we focus on Trump, let’s think a bit more about the wisdom found in…

As a cancer survivor, I know that one of the sweetest phrases in the English language is “The good news is that we caught this early.” But hearing this phrase from an oncologist isn’t the end of the story. Rather, the “good news” is just the beginning. We’d all be alarmed if a friend who…

Readers will have some sense of my age when I share that I can remember seeing the great Boston Celtic guard Bob Cousy “dribble out the clock.” Cousy was short, but he used his lack of height as an advantage as he led defenders on a merry chase for minutes—yes, minutes—to run out the clock.…

One of the many valuable and practical lessons that the Buddha taught is that our mindsroutinely misperceive what is right in front of us. That might sound like the problem is with our senses,particularly our eyes, but that’s not the case. The problem lies in our tendency to process what we’reexperiencing incorrectly, and that leads…

Mourning the death of someone whom one has loved can take many forms.  Take the recent passing of the songwriter and singer Gordon Lightfoot.  Some of us who love Lightfoot’s many songs and the unique quality of his voice will find it too painful to listen for a while to even one of his creations. …

I will pick on my own ethnic background to offer the following example.  If ninety-five percent of violent crime in this country—murders, gun violence, sexual assaults, trafficking of minors, school bullying, hate crimes, and road rage—were committed by Swedish-Americans, wouldn’t we demand to know what’s terribly wrong with Americans of Swedish ancestry?  Wouldn’t we investigate…

There is a scene in Archibald MacLeish’s play “J.B.” that wouldn’t be so sad if it weren’t repeated so often.     “J.B” is MacLeish’s modern retelling of the Biblical book of Job, and, In this scene, J.B’s family is enjoying Thanksgiving dinner.  Joy is the emphasized word.  J.B’s children are really into the festive spirit, laughingly…

A favorite game of history lovers is the “what if” game.  A version of the “what if” game is currently being played on a popular TV program, a show that imagines what America would be like if Germany and Japan had won WW II.  Another popular program imagines life in our country if Russia had…

Many Christmases ago, a relative of mine received what was then a new toy.  The toy was an oval track with a battery-powered booster on one side that propelled a Hot Wheels car around the track.  The car would be shot out of the booster at high speed, then slowly decelerate as it made its…

I suspect that everyone who loves sacred scriptures, no matter what scriptures that person considers sacred, has experienced something similar to what I experienced thirty years ago.  After decades of reading and studying the Bible, my tradition’s sacred text, I came across a passage that I never noticed before.  When that happened, I was stopped…